Techniques are known for taking professional quality images of people against painted backgrounds. For example, a person can be imaged in a studio while standing in front of a wall or a drop cloth painted with a background image to create the appearance that the person actually was in that background scene, or a person can be imaged in front of a green cloth backdrop to take a picture that can be composited into a picture of a scene such as Times Square.
These processes have certain limitations. For example, taking images o with the person in front of a green cloth background detracts from a feeling of being in an elegant or themed setting, and standing in front of a painted scene wall painting is limiting because of factors such as the practical availability of only one or a few painted walls. Using a blank wall as background for images for merging with other images is not visually appealing and deprives the person being imaged of a sense of what the merged image will ultimately show, the person cannot pose in a way that accounts for the intended background, and there is no opportunity for interaction with background or for conveniently assessing different backgrounds. If the guest clothing contain a color close to the blank wall color, there can be difficulties in extracting the person's image from the background or in changing the background color. In a television broadcast, a reporter can be seen as pointing to a weather map but in fact is in front of a blue or green screen and the reporter's image is digitally merged into a video clip of the weather map. Image merging also is used for special effects in movie making but through the use of highly specialized stages and image editing facilities that are impractical for use in settings such as with guests at a popular building or venue for portfolios that they could purchase.